Sìjiào yì 四教義
The Meaning of the Four Doctrines by 智顗 (Zhìyǐ / Tiāntái dàshī, 撰)
About the work
A twelve-juan doctrinal treatise by Zhìyǐ 智顗 elaborating the four doctrinal classifications (sìjiào 四教 — zàngjiào 藏教 / tōngjiào 通教 / biéjiào 別教 / yuánjiào 圓教) of the Tiāntái huàfǎ sìjiào 化法四教 doctrinal-classification system. The work is one of Zhìyǐ’s principal mature systematic treatments of the sìjiào doctrine and the foundational textual authority for the standard Tiāntái doctrinal-classification framework.
Abstract
The Sìjiào yì provides systematic detailed exposition of each of the four doctrinal classifications, with their respective doctrinal commitments, meditative practices, and soteriological frameworks. Together with the wǔshí 五時 (five-period) classification, the sìjiào doctrine constitutes the foundational Tiāntái jiàopàn 教判 (doctrinal-classification) apparatus.
The composition is bracketed within Zhìyǐ’s mature productive period c. 575–597.
Translations and research
- Donner, Neal, and Stevenson, Daniel B. The Great Calming and Contemplation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
- Hurvitz, Leon. Chih-i (538–597). Brussels, 1962.
- Andō Toshio 安藤俊雄. Tendaigaku — kompon shisō to sono tenkai. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1968.
- Swanson, Paul L. Foundations of T’ien-T’ai Philosophy: The Flowering of the Two Truths Theory in Chinese Buddhism. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1989.
Links
- CBETA online text T1929
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (590) — Takakusu Junjirō and Watanabe Kaigyoku, eds. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo, 1924–1932; CBReader v 5.0, 2014.